Thursday, July 14, 2005

Random Splats

Lost Nomad, clearly among the top Bloggers in Korea these days (must be the pictures of fish), had a beat on the 40+ Koreans who threw a tantrum in Hong Kong. Gi Korea has some good commentary on it as well. It was with no small satisfaction to me that the flight took off without the crybabies and the airline (at least thus far) is refusing to reward their boorish behaviour. Would have been nice to see it and give a Nelson (of the Simpson's) 'ha-ha' as the plane flew away without them.

A few points that I haven't already heard from others commenting on the issue.

1. There were 308 passengers on the plane altogether. Other than the 44 crybabies, we don't know how many more passengers were Korean. Isn't it possible that the majority of the Koreans just boarded the plane without complaint?

2. Score one for the Korea media by reporting the Koreans' behaviour in a negative light (as they should have). This group made an ass of its collective self and a Korean newspaper called them on it. I don't suspect many Koreans will try to defend that group's actions (though it would be interesting to see what would have happened in an Japanese airport). People do dumb-ass things all the time, individually and collectively. It's the way the media and society react to it that is most important in my book (though other English language outlets in Korea seem to have ignored the story).

3. Is it just me, or do 'Ugly Koreans' only seem to show up in countries that Koreans might deem as equals or inferior? We hear a lot of stories about ugly Koreans in the Phillipines, for example, but I can't recall hearing any in Europe or North America.

udda stuff...

The Big Hominid (who is somewhat big and does seem to be of an erect bipedal nature) gets an angry email from one 'Bill Pickford,' just about the same time Lost Nomad (who seems neither lost nor particularly nomadic, by the by) has an angry commenter by the name of 'William'. One in the same? Or just a coincidence that is most unfortunate for 'Williams' everywhere who are NOT morons?

Sejong over at Dog stew has a good update on all that yummy progress North Korea has made since the Korean Summit of 2000. (Oops! I should have said 'progress North AND South Korea have made', I always forget!) I left a comment (poor guy doesn't get many these days) giving appropriate praise.

Here is Ha Seung-jin of the Portland Trailblazers in the NBA Summer League (he's out with an injury).

Is that a regulation sized basketball? Damn that boy is big.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, Ha is going to be the next Sean Bradley of the NBA. Be warned...